* Rolls Royce intends to cut or relocate 378 defense-related jobs at its plant in Ansty, UK, or almost half its staff. This follows the confirmation by the Ministry of Defence of a third tranche of redundancies affection 5,300 Army soldiers.
* The SPEEA trade union explains [PDF] why it rejected Boeing’s latest (of many) contract proposal which the company had presented as its “best and final.” It’s all about pension schemes. Employees are to vote in a process whose outcome won’t be known until mid-February.
* The US Army promoted and/or reassigned a dozen generals. Among them, Brig. Gen. Peter D. Utley will head the Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.
* Plans from the Pentagon and the services to adjust their budgets continue to trickle in, from the Air Force freezing civilian hires to the US Army looking at cutting their fleet of leased vehicles. Also: expect $499M contract awards.
* As part of its plan to diversify into renewal energy, French shipbuilder DCNS increased its stake in OpenHydro, an Irish company specialized in tapping tidal streams, to a majority of the shares.
* Austal partnered with the Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore to support future US Navy deployments of LCS and JHSV ships in the region.
* Textron reported Q4 2012 revenue of $3.4B, up Y/Y 3.3%. Bell grew its backlog by $1.2B to $7.5B while Cessna and Textron Systems had decreasing and flat backlogs respectively.
* The Air Force had built in January 10, 2013 as the date for the award of the Light Air Support (LAS) recompete between Embraer/Sierra Nevada and Hawker Beechcraft. That deadline has come and gone, and a firm date to conclude the RFP is not known.
